I know the question isn't worded great, and probably should have been clearer but i gave it a whirl to see if I understood the need. I made a recommendation on an open source decompiler http://ilspy.net/ that I've used before.

With it I made a disclaimer that I was not giving legal advice, but warned that misusing decompilers could violate copyrights since it appeared the user wasn't familiar with decompilers specifically.

Another user replied that I should not give that advice on SO.

My Meta Question is, do you think it is appropriate to give an OP non-legal advice when making a software recommendation, or is that type of advice inappropriate for SO?

Generally speaking, it's not SE's job to enforce laws. What's illegal in one country may be legal in another. You are free to vote down as you wish, but content generally should not be taken down unless it violates some SE policy (off-topic, not an answer, spam, etc...). If someone wants to take something down from SO/SE, that's what DMCA requests are for.
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MysticialApr 21 '14 at 21:19

7

It's not at all clear that the question you linked is abusive. Decompilers are used for a number of different reasons; I often use one to decompile parts of the .NET Framework to see what it is doing under the covers. I would also use one if I lost the source code to a DLL I wrote.
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Robert Harvey♦Apr 21 '14 at 21:37

absolutely, i'm not saying it is abusive. Decompilers are very useful, i was simply trying let the OP know that decompilers can be misused when the original source code from the dll isn't your own. I was wondering less about enforcing laws and more about my place as a user to inform people about potential pit falls.
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MadullahApr 22 '14 at 0:29

1 Answer
1

Just to be a pedant, using a (de)compiler on a compiled product is not violating the copyright at all, it will usually be violating the licence terms which is a civil matter. Most (all?) commercial licences will carry that as a condition regardless of how enforceable it is, it is just a standard clause.

My Meta Question is, do you think it is appropriate to give an OP non-legal advice when making a software recommendation, or is that type of advice inappropriate for SO?

You should remove the words "non-legal" from that sentence because they are not required </pedant>. The answer to this is a resounding yes, of course you can give advice as part of your answer. The community will still evaluate your answer and vote up/down as they see fit, but if the advice is appropriate and adds value then put it in.

thanks for the good answer, my main concern was someone using a decompiler to decompile a third party dll and accessing source code that isn't theirs, but i do appreciate the advice pedantic tags and all.
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MadullahApr 22 '14 at 0:37

1

@Madullah What someone does with the decompiler is not your issue (or StackExchange's). Just like if you teach them to drive you are not responsible if they then go and act as a getaway driver for a robbery. Like I mentioned it's a civil issue anyway, which means they have to cause damage of some sort which then has to be determined in court if the licence holder pursues it. That's totally not your problem :)
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slugsterApr 22 '14 at 2:19

5

Shouldn't that be "using a decompiler on a compiled product?
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Frank SchmittApr 22 '14 at 7:16

1

A decompiler is just an compiler for machinecode into programming language, but to clearify this you're probably right
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niccomatikApr 22 '14 at 13:06

"of course you can give advice as part of your answer" indeed, it's that simple.
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Joe BlowJun 18 '14 at 15:40